How do you get your LO's to nap in the day?

my baby NEVER sleeps during the day, a small nap here and there..but he doesnt sleep. I have tried ever since he is 3 months, with the routines, watching his cues, putting him to bed 1hour and a half after he is up, I have tried everything, have seen many doctors and they have all said the same thing...ACCEPT IT! Apparantly I have a baby that does NOT need to nap, apparantly the only person who needs him to nap is ME because I never have any time to get things done around the house because he still hasnt learned to play alone. He sleeps 12 hours at night at 6 months and according to all doctors I have seen I should praise myself and kiss his tiny feet that he sleeps this well at night. I have tried shush and pat, crying it out while sitting next to him, giving him nap routines, musical themes...he does NOT want to nap, becomes hysterical. I have tried putting him to bed, letting him nap in the stroller, the car seat.what ever u name it I have tried. He will NOT nap unless he is EXTREMELY tired, which some days is NEVER, some days its 15 minutes, other days 20 minutes. If I do try to put him to sleep he will scream and scream and scream and scream and so I have given up on trying last week after seeing a doctor for myself who advised me to stop trying so hard and just relax and if he doesnt want to sleep to just accept it. So please people, dont think all babies HAVE to sleep or else there is something wrong with them. 2 pedicatricians and a specialist have told me that some babies just do not need as much day time sleep and the only ones that suffer are the parents. I have now accepted it and try not to look for the mistake within myself and it is very hard because I am a professional guilt tripper.

I probably already mentioned this but DS has just woken up so have to type fast :D. We reduced the amount he was getting at his 4am feed - Cecile said by 5mls every 5 days, but DH dropped the bottle one night so it was reduced by 30ml or something and he barely noticed. So the next night I made 30ml less and within a few days he stopped waking up.

I tried Gina ford way didnt work!!, A friend recomendedCecile 0506947938, who i visited when she was 3month old.( shes now7m)and this was my best decision ever!Always naps on schedule,In her BED!( which had never happened before!) bedtime 7pm to 7am, with dream feed at 11:00pm, (She also explained how to withdraw 3am feed and within 1 week she never woke up to feed at 3),Shes is the happiest baby since then.But you will need alot of patience for the whole thing to work, i didnt like listening to her cry b4 my time to move in to attend,but it paid off.Also i broke one rule (Dont offer pacifier in bed time!)as she wouldnt sleep without it !but guess what she now rejects it and prefers her thumb. Hi Caroline. What method did you follow to withdraw the 3 am feed? Please let me know.

How long is you LO up for between sleeps? ohh just read another post and its just over an hour which is about right...you may just have to leave him, don't go in too soon , and yes for some children Mibiles keep them awake, rather than help soothing to sleep. With first DS I did the easy, but with DD I read Mark weisbbluths book, which I found very helpful, he talks about the need for sleep, how much they need at what age, and gives you a number of different options for how to get them into a sleep routine. DD is now a fantastic sleeper.

Plumie how long does your LO usually sleep at night? From what time to what time? I am getitng DD into a routine slowley but some days are completly different to others. We have to catch up for that coffee. sent you an email 7pm - 7am :D And that us a HUGE grin as it was no easy task getting her to sleep through! I don't do a dream feed at 10pm as she does not take the bottle, and shoving the boob in her mouth did not work either! So she normally wakes between 2-3am, i go in, change her diaper, feed her, burp her and back down in about 40min! And then sleeps through until 7am! A few mornings she has woken at 4:30/5am for her dream feed, same procedure and then wakes at 7am again! I am hoping this is steering in the direction of her dropping her dream feed on her own! She has been sleeping through the night since 6weeks old (when we moved her into her own room) and has been going down at 7am since 9 weeks! Before that, we were sleep training her and taking anywhere from 1 - 2hrs to get her to sleep! So she was going down anywhere from 7am - 8:30pm, however when she went down, she would still sleep through the night! Will check mail in a while x

I got myself the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr.Marc Weissbluth after someone recommended it on this forum. It worked like magic for DD who was always great with nighttime sleep but not so much with naps. For me it was important to recognize DD's signs of tiredness and put her down early enough before she became overtired. Once I figured that out it was no problem putting her into her crib and have her take proper long naps. Before that the only way she's sleep was on my chest in the ErgoCarrier or in the car.

Plumie how long does your LO usually sleep at night? From what time to what time? I am getitng DD into a routine slowley but some days are completly different to others. We have to catch up for that coffee. sent you an email

Another EASY follower :D However, sometimes i do AESY, and it works just as good! I also tried to follow the routine by the book, but DD was having none of it! I then used the guidelines and adapted it to her, as each baby is different! My DD is also 3 months old and we started sleep training with Cecile when she was 6 weeks old! Night time works like clockwork now - 5:30pm wind down time - usually a book, tummy time or some gentle stimulation with a toy! 6pm - bath, 7pm tucked in and lights off! When i started implementing this - DD resisted when i put her down, however it took a few weeks of perseverance and consistency and it is finally paying off :D Mornings is her alert time, so i usually follow her cues! Sometimes she is ready for a nap after 1.5hrs of waking, other mornings 2.5hrs of waking! Putting her down when she is not "ready" just causes her to go into a tantrum, and winds her up unnecessarily! I also learnt that DD likes to cluster feed in the mornings, so EAESY works a treat! However, if she shows her tired signs (sneezing, yawning and blinking of the eyes) she goes down immediately! Something else that also works, i swaddle her for all her naps! She has now learnt that swaddling, a quick cuddle = sleep time ;) As she is most alert in the mornings, we have started doing activities now, and she has handled herself very well as the timings are in the mornings. We have enrolled for Boogie Babies and i also do 2 BuggEfit classes during the week! She normally has her longest nap from 2pm-ish until 5pm! If i am out during her longest sleep stretch in the afternoon, she sometimes takes a power nap, and i will start the wind down routine as soon as i get home! I tried getting DD into a routine with set timings, but this did not work for us! Now i rather go by her sleep cues and it works much better for both of us ;) I have found that DD has also become very alert, and tends to look around for a good 10 minutes before drifting off! She now has a canopy over her cot and i have taken all toys out of her travel cot which is downstairs. If she does grizzle a bit, i don't pick her up, instead just go in, pat and shush and leave the room again! If she grizzles some more, i pick her up for 2 minutes, put her back down and then she normally drifts off! HTH

I tried Gina ford way didnt work!!, A friend recomendedCecile 0506947938, who i visited when she was 3month old.( shes now7m)and this was my best decision ever!Always naps on schedule,In her BED!( which had never happened before!) bedtime 7pm to 7am, with dream feed at 11:00pm, (She also explained how to withdraw 3am feed and within 1 week she never woke up to feed at 3),Shes is the happiest baby since then.But you will need alot of patience for the whole thing to work, i didnt like listening to her cry b4 my time to move in to attend,but it paid off.Also i broke one rule (Dont offer pacifier in bed time!)as she wouldnt sleep without it !but guess what she now rejects it and prefers her thumb.

At least he sleeps well at night and it sounds like he's bang on for his age. But not having time to yourself in the daytime, and not being able to rely on a routine, is horrible. Do you stay home most of the day or are you in and out so he has to nap in the car/in the pram etc? We used to be out and about all the time but I've found DS sleeps so much better now he has almost every daytime nap in his cot. For us, his morning nap - about an hour after he wakes up - is key and if he doesn't get this, or it's not a good enough/long enough sleep, the day is off to a rocky start. We can usually rely on the car as a last resort if we're not home in time for his pre-dinner nap but I make sure his lunchtime nap is always in his cot too. Apparently once you establish a routine and baby knows when he or she goes to sleep each day, you should be able to take them out and about more and they'll just nap when they normally do, but I haven't been brave enough to try it beyond going round to a friend's with a travel cot! Too many months of sleep deprivation have made me a bit of a routine freak :D.

DD never had a day time nap in her cotbed, and it's not because I didn't try everything from Baby Whisperer or GF. She only ever napped whilst being driven in the car. I ended up doing a lot of driving and very little chore catch up time. Not sure this is helpful.

p.s. also we use a muslin square over the moses basket/pram with bull dog clips to block out stimulation. Remove mobile's/toys etc from the crib.

Agree with Dubaicat, also use E.A.S.Y and have a DD who is now 6 months. Recognising the sleep cues are vital as an overtired baby will usually only sleep 1 sleep cycle(45min/1 hour) Look for face rubbing, staring off into space, sneezing and turning away from stimulation and get them into bed ASAP also dont rush in when you hear them stir, see if they can settle themself's. My DD uses her thumb to settle herself as i was always too lazy to keep going back in with a dummy. If baby does stir go in and ssshh them quitely maybe putting a hand on them and if you like show them their thumb, then leave the room and see how it goes. Good luck!

We had a nightmare with DS's sleep both at night and in the daytime. We saw Cecile and she said to work on his night-time sleep first, then move onto daytime naps. I'm not sure if your LO is too small for sleep training, though. How does he sleep at night? If he's exhausted daytime sleep is that much harder to achieve :(.